On this day in 1986, Newsweek magazine published an article detailing the economic problems in Lone Star, Texas, in southern Morris County. The site was probably settled around the time of the Civil...(Read More)

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SPURS

SPURS. The use of spurs can be traced to Roman times. Early spurs were made of wood or bone, later ones of metal. Spurs were a necessary implement to the cowboy when he was mounted and a social requirement when he was dismounted. Though spurs are often highly decorative-"gal-leg" spurs, for instance, had shanks shaped like a woman's legs-utility has always been the first consideration. Cowboys used the spur for everything from a branding iron to a grave marker.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Charles de Lacy Lacy, The History of the Spur (n.d.). Louis P. Merrill, "The Spur," Cattleman, September 1941. Jane Pattie, Cowboy Spurs and Their Makers (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1991).